Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 32 shots he faced for the shutout victory. Pure Vasilarceny. Tampa Bay got loose at times in the final 40 minutes of the game giving up way too many odd man rushes, but you saw the Vasilevskiy phenomenon in effect. World class snipers like Tarasenko trying to cut it too fine pulling shots wide of the net left and right because Vasiy had crawled up into their heads and built a condo. The really great goaltenders do that. Vasiy is on his way.

I'm not going to tell you that was the Lightning's most picturesque win. But, it's illustrative of how a really good team with skill and goaltending manufactures a road win even when they're not all the way on their A game.

The Lightning's win tonight completes the team's third 10-game segment of the campaign, which was another success. Now sitting at 46 points this year, the Lightning have banked a staggering 10 insurance points heading into segment four of the season, and they're just two points away from hitting the halfway mark of the minimum they need to comfortably make the postseason. It's all lovely and impressive, and they'll get until the next morning skate to enjoy it, because after that the mantra is clear: flush it and move on. Twelve in ten? Now do it again.

Slater Koekkoek had 1 blocked shot in 10:36. Not surprising that in a close game the staff curtailed his ice time.

Yanni Gourde had 1 hit and was 56% on 9 draws in 15:07. He's one of the guys who didn't have his most effective night tonight.

Jake Dotchin had 3 shots and 6 hits in 18:32 in a heavy game that favored his style of play. The ice time numbers are trending in a good direction.

Mikhail Sergachev had a helper and was +1 with 2 shots and 2 blocked shots in a pretty hefty 21:30. He had some turnover issues tonight, so it wasn't a clean game, but his possession numbers have been pretty strong the past few games. Tonight, although he only got 2 shots through, he had 10 total attempts to lead the team. That's some fancy stat-age for you all.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 3 goals on 20 shots for the win. He had long stretches of inactivity so it was hard to stay sharp, but I'm sure he's thanking his stars his guys bailed him out after that soft third goal.

I think both teams treated this one like a measuring stick, and if that's what it was then I'd say the Lightning have to feel pretty good about it. That's not just because of the result, but because this was a game where the Lightning were able to nullify Winnipeg's size and speed and really controlled the balance of the play. The Lightning held Winnipeg to just 11 shots through 40 minutes and just 20 shots on the entire evening. That's a pretty astonishing stat given Winnipeg's firepower and lends credence to the view that Amalie Arena has become one of the real fortresses in the NHL this season. Still, the Lightning had some adversity in this game falling behind on a bad early shift, giving up a goal late in the Second Period on a pretty wicked deflection, and then giving up the lead in the Third Period on a pretty soft goal. And, again, this team showed its resiliency.

What a novel concept winning an offensive zone faceoff to manufacture Kucherov's tying goal in the Third Period. Lather, rinse, repeat. Please.

Tampa Bay's win gives them 12 points in this 10-game segment, making it 3 for 3 successful segments on the year. The Lightning get one more game in this segment to try to build up their cache of bonus points from 8 points to a possible 10.

Slater Koekkoek was -1 with 1 shot and 2 blocked shots in 11:36. It was a mixed bag. I thought he made some decent plays in the offensive zone but got caught flat footed once or twice defensively. He can fly, but I don't think he adjusted to Winnipeg's speed as quickly as his teammates did.

Yanni Gourde had the power play goal and was -1 with 3 shots, 1 hit, and 1 blocked shot. He was also 50% on 10 draws. He played a really strong game. He's arguably the team's best forechecker and when he can get some shots on goal like he did tonight, I think he's such a valuable player.

Jake Dotchin had a helper and was -1 with 2 penalty minutes and 2 hits in 18:05. Coming off the injury you might've expected them to bring him into the lineup slowly, but 18 minutes is a fairly big number. He makes a difference for the Lightning because when he can fill this much time he helps regulate Girardi and Stralman's ice time and gives them a chance to play roles they can help the team the most in.

Sergachev had a goal, 3 shots, and 1 blocked shot in 19:23. He obviously scored a filthy turnaround goal. Just to go on a skate like that in the offensive zone and try that took some chutzpah for a rookie. But, on top of that, 19:23 of ice time is a really nice number. If he and Dotchin are giving this team 18+ quality minutes moving forward, it makes Yzerman's deadline shopping list a lot less pricey.

Peter Budaj allowed 2 goals on 30 shots for the win. The second goal he allowed was as soft as you'll see through the five hole on a shooter coming in on the rush, but he closed the door the rest of the way.

Colorado's terrible, and although the Lightning allowed them to hang around with some odd man rushes and a soft goal in the First Period, they ultimately disposed of them without much drama. The shot totals were fairly even, but the possession was 2:1 Lightning and the chances were significantly in the Lightning's favor, too. Three point nights for Stamkos and Namestnikov, and the juggernaut keeps rolling.

With two games remaining in this ten game segment of the season, the Lightning have rebounded well and now just need 2 of a possible 4 points to clinch a successful segment. As poorly as they were doing to start the segment, that's fairly remarkable.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 2 goals on 27 shots for the victory. I honestly thought Vasiy wasn't as sharp as he normally was tonight. He got the benefit of a few posts and didn't have the greatest rebound control, but 85-90% Vasilevskiy's still good enough to get you wins if you play well in front of him, and that was the case tonight.

Great response by the Lightning tonight after sleepwalking their way through too much of the game in Boston. They used their speed to overwhelm San Jose for all 60 minutes en route to posting a 43-27 shot advantage and a 5-2 win. San Jose's goaltender, Martin Jones, was far better than in his last outing against the Lightning and managed to hold the Sharks in the game for 40 minutes, but the Lightning just had too much possession and eventually wore out the slower Sharks, with odd man rushes being the outcome as their defense crumbled in the final frame.

Tyler Johnson potted two goals on a long shoot in from Ondrej Palat off the corner boards timed to let Johnson use his speed to get the loose puck in front of the net for a jam in goal and on a rebound off a Victor Hedman scramble. The common thread in the two goals: Johnson playing a simpler game that is tailored to his strengths. I think his struggles over the past couple of years stem partly from him trying to play a style of game that isn't him. When you play with guys like Palat and Kucherov for so long, I think it's easy to get caught up and think you're some kind of dangling, creative playmaker with amazing handles. That's not Johnson. Johnson's gifts are that he has blazing speed and a great shot. That's two pretty boffo gifts if you're going to pick two out of the hockey hat, and that's why it's been frustrating to see Johnson pass out of shot opportunities or try to make an extra stickhandling move or toe drag for much of this season. When he plays a north-south, shoot-first style of game, he's a good NHL scoring line player. His speed scares the hell out of defenders and creates space for his linemates and his shot is heavy and hard to control. So, if he keeps playing the style he played tonight, the results will follow.

The underrated part of tonight's game was the disgustingly good passes by Palat on Johnson and Kucherov's first goals. Have mercy.

I'll be the guy to put some negative sauce out there: Braun's goal came off one of many faceoff losses. The Lightning only lost the faceoff battle tonight by a modest 49-51 margin, but the team is 28th out of 31 teams in faceoffs. It's not as big a deal right now, but it will be come playoff time. I still would contend to you the Lightning lost the Stanley Cup three years ago to Chicago largely because the Blackhawks were able to generate cheap possession and nullify the Lightning's athleticism advantage by winning a ton of offensive zone faceoffs. The fact that this hasn't been solved, along with the team's quixotic quest to find RHD seemingly since the day Dan Boyle dropped a skate on his wrist, might be the two most frustrating parts of being a Lightning fan over this last decade to decade and a half. This is a problem that the organization needs to remedy if the team is serious about winning a championship. I can't put it any more bluntly.

The Lightning's win tonight put them at 6 points after 6 games of this 10-game segment of the season. They still need 6 of a possible 8 points the rest of the way to clinch a successful segment and avoid dipping into their insurance points. Tough, but it looks a lot more do-able after tonight's effort.

Slater Koekkoek had 1 shot and 1 blocked shot in 14:36. It was a quiet night for him, but a quiet night with 14+ minutes is a good thing. It shows he was steady and earning more shifts.

Yanni Gourde had a helper and was +1 with 1 blocked shot. He was also 57% on 7 draws. Still wish he'd get more shots for himself.

Mikhail Sergachev had a helper and 3 shots, 1 hit, and 1 blocked shot in 19:23. I'd have to go back and look at his game logs, but I feel like that was a season high in ice time for Sergachev, and it came in a fairly quiet game for him. Again, that's a good thing. It means he was steady and earning those shifts, just like Koekkoek. Remember, it's really important for at least 2 of these 3 young prospect defensemen (Dotchin being the third) to develop into an ~18 minute a night player by the end of the regular season, thereby helping to regulate the minutes of older vets like Coburn and Girardi at more manageable levels. Tonight, on paper, was a welcome step toward that.

OK... I went back and checked, and indeed it's Sergachev's season high in ice time. It's only the second time so far he topped the 18 minute mark. Good on him.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 3 goals on 36 shots for the loss. Wasn't his fault. Other than maybe Paquette, there's no one else on the team I can honestly claim played like anything more than hot runny garbage.

It's a totally justifiable thing to point out this was Tampa Bay's 4th game in 6 nights as an explanation of why the team didn't seem to really have it's legs. The problem I had tonight is the Lightning seemed to have internalized that excuse and used it as a rationale for a pretty heartless exercise in going through the motions. The first 40 minutes of that game was awful. Shiftless. Lethargic. Unthinking. Unfeeling. Uncaring. And, really, that's a shame because they managed to sleepwalk to a 3-2 decision and may have been able to steal a point or two with an honest effort. And, that would've been a really sweet way to break up the pro-Bruins pep rally that NBCSN decided to throw on their airwaves tonight. Opportunity lost.

Halfway through segment three of the season the Lightning have only secured 4 points in 5 games. That means they'll have to win 4 of their next 5 just to have a successful 10 game segment to not dip into their insurance point stash. The team's struggles seem to have hit right about when Jake Dotchin went on IR, and my goodness did Dan Girardi stink out loud tonight, especially on the eventual GWG. Get well soon, young Jake.

Yanni Gourde had 2 hits in 10:23. I'm going to speculate his ice time got slashed because he's one of the ones who had a subpar effort level tonight.

Andrei Vasilevskiy had about as pedestrian a 34 save shutout as you can imagine. Buffalo was largely kept to the perimeter and had very few legit scoring chances all game. Vasiy surely deserved that defensive performance in front of him after having to play Superman against the Caps last time out.

Kind of a boring game. Both teams played a fairly well structured defensive game so there weren't a ton of chances and certainly a paucity of odd man rushes, too. The Lightning did have the big possession advantage in the First Period that they turned into a power play and the eventual game winner. They also manufactured the insurance goal on a long shot through a tough screen by Stamkos in front. Both goals, really, were nothing flashy. Meat and potatoes shots through traffic that glanced off Buffalo defenders and in.

With all that said, it's a win the Lightning really needed to have. They now have 4 points through 4 games of this 10-game segment of the season, meaning they still need to collect 8 in the last 6 games to have a successful segment. Yes, the team has a ton of insurance points already banked if need be, but you don't want to dip into those. You want to stay on that .600 or better track the rest of the way. Steady does it.

Slater Koekkoek had 2 shots and 2 hits in 9:42. Looked nice and active again in the First Period. Got nailed to the bench the rest of the way for some reason.

Petr Budaj allowed 5 goals on 34 shots for the loss. Maybe you can quibble about the 5th goal, but I can't get too mad at the guy when he's facing breakaways and 5-on-3 power plays all night. That said, the past two games illustrate the gap between Budaj and Vasilevskiy pretty vividly.

Glass half empty: the Lightning have suddenly lost 3 of their last 4 games and lose back-to-back games in regulation for the first time in this campaign. Offensive chances that were being potted efficiently in the first 20 games of the season are suddenly not going in and the Lightning defense, with Dotchin out at the pairings scrambled, hasn't been good enough to compensate.

Glass half full: this might've been considered a schedule loss from the word "jump". Back-to-back playing against Washington and Pittsburgh, two of the league's best teams, with Budaj slated to go in net? Tough spot. The Lightning actually played better than the score indicates and dominated most of the First Period until they overplayed their hand on the backside of a four minute minor leading to Rust's shorthanded goal. Pittsburgh then got the benefit of... look, everybody knows the Pens get some ridiculously soft calls in their favor and the Pens got gifted a couple of extended 5-on-3 power plays tonight. I'm not going to tell you the Lightning deserved to win this one, although they led in scoring chances for much of the night. What I will tell you is the zebras may have robbed the Lightning of a chance to compete and at least have a chance to steal a road point or two.

Slater Koekkoek had 3 shots in 16:19. I thought he played a pretty strong game supporting the play in the offensive zone and he got some nice IT in garbage time.

Yanni Gourde had a helper and was -1 with 1 shot and 1 hit in 14:28. Wish he'd get himself more shots.

Mikhail Sergachev had a helper and was -1 with 2 penalty minutes, 2 shots, 1 hit, and 2 blocked shots in 17:17. Like Koekkoek, he was strong in the offensive zone supporting the play and on the power play he plunked his hard wrister off Palat and into the back of the net for an apple.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 2 goals on 37 shots for the victory. The players in front of him did a bang up job of wasting an amazing effort that held them in the game and gave them a chance to steal at least a point tonight.

That was 40 minutes of getting outpossessed and outplayed by Washington followed by 20 minutes of frustration as they came close to paying off Vasiy's heroics, but just couldn't find the equalizer. There's plenty of blame to go around tonight, but honestly I'll say this might've been Victor Hedman's worst game in years. His Norris Trophy campaign committee will want to hunt down all copies of tonight's tilt and have them burned.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 2 goals on 31 shots for the win. It was a rough start for Andrei allowing a semi-soft goal to Kane where he was off his angle and deep in his net. When the good ones give up a couple early, though, they tend to dig their heels in and shut the door the rest of the way. That happened tonight as Vasilevskiy made about 4-5 unbelievable stops to give the Lightning the chance to eventually pull out the win.

That's not exactly how you'd draw up a win against a NHL power like Chicago, but it's impressive nonetheless. The Lightning looked a little disjointed in the First Period while dealing with Dotchin being out of the lineup, Paquette being back in the lineup, and a Chicago team that's well coached and has a lot of speed. Adding to their peril was a semi-soft goal allowed by Vasilevskiy and a failed 5-on-3 bid that put them on the downside of Espo's Rule. Things looked bleak after 20 minutes, but they fought hard the rest of the way to eventually equalize and win it in Overtime.

One of the biggest elements of that comeback was the surprising play of the fourth line of Kunitz/Paquette/Callahan. Playing with a regular, natural centerman seemed to free the whole line up to just buzz around and grind, with Paquette throwing a tone-setting hit on Toews that seemed to propel that line's who game from there on out. Callahan, in particular, turned in one of those performances that reminds you of what he was at the prime of his career.

I think the most impressive thing about tonight was it was a different way of winning. The Lightning were forced to manufacture a couple of goals to get level rather than simply winning a track meet. These kind of victories can help build a valuable foundation for when the calendar gets into late March and April and games get tighter and more meaningful.

One downside from tonight that I'll mention after watching it for the past three or so games: Kucherov's got to stop trying to make the cute play and simplify his approach. He's making one more move and one more pass than he needs to. When he's in a scoring area, he needs to just rip it. And, when a play's not there, put it in spots in the corners and trust your bloodhounds Namestnikov and Stamkos will get in there, sniff out those loose pucks, and keep the attack alive in the offensive zone.

Tampa Bay starts off their third 10-game segment of the season with 2 big points. They need 10 in their next 9 to clinch a successful segment.

Yanni Gourde was -1 with 2 penalty minutes, 1 blocked shot, and he was 40% on 5 draws.

Mikhail Sergachev had 2 shots, 1 hit, and 2 blocked shots in 17:54. He was impressive tonight against a high caliber foe. Yes, there were a couple of plays that were a little riskier than I may have liked from a rookie blueliner, but he made them stick.

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 4 goals on 31 shots for the rare loss. I think he might want the second goal back, which appeared to go through him, but in fairness to him the defense was pretty rancid tonight.

The Lightning were flat and looked unprepared for the game and the Islanders jumped on them and got the goal on the opening shift. The Lightning responded by opening up too much to try to get goals and ended up surrendering too many odd man rushes and found themselves behind the eight ball. They eventually got down 3 goals after 40 minutes, and as I've said many a time, it feels like 99 times out of 100 that's a death sentence for the team trailing in pro hockey. You may get within one, but you eventually lose and it happened again tonight.

The Lightning finish the second 10-game segment of the season 8 points ahead of playoff pace. Good news is, ending on a loss, I don't think anyone's got to warn the Lightning to get complacent. Segment three starts tomorrow with a record of 0-0-0. Twelve in ten: do it again.

Gourde had a pair of goals and was +1 with 4 shots and 1 blocked shot in 17:23.

Jake Dotchin was -3 with 2 shots in 12:18. Not going to sugar coat it: he stunk tonight. Getting beat like a dog out of the corner by Nelson on the third goal ultimately was the kill shot goal for the Islanders. He didn't cloak himself in glory with his play in this one.

Mikhail Sergachev was -1 with 3 shots, 1 hit, and 1 blocked shot in 18:37. Had a lot of scoring chances in this game and was dynamic offensively.